Murder and Merlot
by lissianne
Summary: written by gingersnapped907 and snark contributed by me, this fic is in honor of our birthday girls. Along with their characters, there's plenty of Shandy and sass, murder and mayhem and wine...lots of wine.


A/N : This is a fic for our birthday girls. This was written mostly by gingersnapped907,while I contributed snark whenever possible.

We still own nothing of Major Crimes...

Murder and Merlot

Sharon finally managed to get their dinner on the table after a having hard time getting it ready. What made it so difficult was Andy came over early to help prep. There in-fact was the problem. It seemed he couldn't concentrate on cutting up the makings for a salad. More importantly, he couldn't keep his hands to himself, not that she was complaining, not at all. However, she didn't relish the thought of getting caught by her son making out with Andy in her kitchen. It was nice to have a quiet evening and have some down time with him. Though they saw each other a lot at work, their time together outside the office was her favorite. It was when she could be just Sharon.

From their time together off the clock, she found that Andy had a different side to him. They knew each well from the years spent working together, but spending personal time brought them much closer. It all began for her when she saw him at his daughter's wedding. Sharon saw what it was like for him to be excluded from much of Nicole's life for his past mistakes. It was a situation much like her ex's, but what made Andy different from Jack was Andy wanted to make amends and he was trying to be a part of both his children's lives. That opened her eyes to the man behind her lieutenant. Since then, they had been spending a lot of time together. She had come to find him irresistible.

Hearing Andy say her name louder brought her out from reminiscing over the past years. Sharon looked over at him holding her phone in the palm of his hand. "It's been ringing, guess you didn't hear it." Andy smirked at her, "since you seem to be thinking of other things. The good news is that it's not any of the team's numbers so maybe it's not a murder."

She smiled back at him and reached for her phone. Sharon made sure to slide her finger along the inside of Andy's wrist as she slid the phone from his outstretched palm. She placed her other hand under both of theirs and pulled him closer to her, but her phone started ringing again. When she went to answer it, Andy wrapped his hand around Sharon's and held her there. With a wink he said lowly, "hopefully it will be a quick call," then he let her go.

As soon as she said hello, Sharon instantly stood up and started pacing. It took her ten minutes alone to calm down the caller enough to understand her, then ten more to figure out what was going on. After hanging up she turned to Andy, "grab your coat we need to go. I'll explain on the way."

Andy drove as Sharon explained that it was former Assistant Chief Johnson on the phone. Andy was going to ask how she was doing, but obviously something was wrong for her to call Sharon and them needing to involve the team. She called Provenza to inform him of being rolled out. It seems Brenda was calling in a favor from her old nemesis because her niece Ashley or was she Brenda's grand-niece or maybe second cousin, whatever, she was in town visiting her friends, Kate and Amie. It seems they happened to have, quite literally, stumbled upon a body. As they pulled up to the crime scene, Sharon turned to Andy and glared at him, "You jinxed us. You just had to say maybe it's not murder." She had deepened her voice to over dramatically imitate his.

Andy had the audacity to look offended as he held a hand up, "hey, it's not my fault."

"Not always, but Provena's not here for you to blame and in this case, it is your fault. Trust me, I will be thinking of the perfect payback for a spoiled evening alone together," Sharon said, smiling as she leaned in to kiss him, her hand sliding higher up his thigh. She leaned back and took in a much needed breath, then ran her fingers through her hair to fix what Andy had just messed up and said, "Alright let's go and hopefully we can get this solved as quickly as possible."

When she opened her door and realized Andy hadn't moved, she tilted her head and looked at him questionably. "Yeah, well this is your fault. You'll have to give me a minute or two here, Sharon. You do play dirty."

When she realized what he meant, she offered a surprised, "oh." Though she felt bad, it was nice to know she had that effect on him and it didn't take much to…she stopped her train of thought as she felt a blush heat up her cheeks. "Sorry about that Andy. That wasn't my intent, I just... It's just that sometimes... that sometimes I have a hard time keeping my hands to myself around you that's all."

"And I have a hard time when you don't," Andy said with a devilish grin and a quirk of his brows. He traced his finger across her reddening cheeks.

He always found Sharon adorable and very irresistible, especially when she was flustered. Actually he found her irresistible anytime. "Oh I'm not complaining and feel free to touch me whenever you want, but maybe not when we are sitting outside the crime scene with the whole team waiting." Andy pulled her closer and kissed her hard. Their fingers ended up threading through each other's hair again by the time he pulled away. With a shaky breath Andy whispered, "Never apologize for..." He lost his ability to think as he watched Sharon run her tongue along her lips then pull her lower one in with her teeth as she looked at him. It was an innocent move on her part, but it was amazingly sexy in his eyes. He reached out and smoothed down her hair and said, "Now go on, I need another minute or two."

As she approached Lieutenant Provenza who was impatiently waiting, Sharon fixed her somewhat disheveled, slightly unbuttoned shirt. "What took you so long? I thought you two were here ten minutes ago and where's Flynn?"

Sharon wasn't going to answer but she knew he would keep asking her so with a shoulder shrug she told him the truth, "he is in the car. He'll be here in a minute." Maybe Provenza would leave it at that, but of course she knew he wouldn't.

"You called us out here with no explanation and now I have to wait around for gods knows how long." He was about to ask why, but when he saw her fixing the lipstick subtly smudged above her upper lip, he muttered, "E'gads, never mind I don't want to know." He turned to look in the direction of Andy's car and muttered under his breath; "idiots" as the blush darkened in her cheeks.

When Andy was at their side, albeit fixing his tie, Louie grumbled, "Captain, can you now explain to all of us why we were dragged out of our houses after just solving a long case?"

With a glare at the grumpy lieutenant, she started, "I got a phone call from a certain retired chief." She crossed her arms, taking note of how fast they snapped to attention at her reference to Brenda Leigh Johnson. Before Mike could finish asking how their old boss was doing Sharon started to explain, "seems a cousin or second cousin or grand-niece, I'm not sure, I lost track somewhere in the hysterical babbling. Apparently one of Brenda's relatives is out here visiting a friend that owns a winery. They were taking a tour of the distillery while having their own private wine tasting along the way. From the sound of it, there was a lot of tasting involved, but anyway, it seems one of the ladies tripped and fell over the victim."

Julio snickered but quickly stopped when he received a finger pointed at him to know it off by Provenza. So Julio asked, "I suppose spilling her wine all over our evidence and possibly the crime scene?"

Sharon nodded in agreement, "yes, the owner tried to catch the bottle before it hit the floor, but wound up dropping hers in the fray also."

"What a shame," Provenza sighed.

"Exactly, they were both very expensive bottles of wine, I'm told," Sharon added.

With that, Provenza gave her a sideways glance and called out over his shoulder as he walked to the front doors, "Flynn you're with me. I want the Captain to be able to actually get some work done tonight." Andy rolled his eyes and then looked at Sharon whose face was red again. He offered her a smile before following his partner.

Once inside, they found the owner trying to calm her hysterical guest. Ashley, Brenda's cousin or whatever, a southern belle in her own right, was still crumpled on the floor, practically swimming in the spilled wine. "Eeeewww I fell on a body…a dead body…and the wine… Amie, I spilled the wine. I love wine and now it's gone," she sobbed. Shortly thereafter, she was gone too, curled into a ball sound asleep, lost in a wine induced dreamland.

Sharon rubbed her forehead, "Lt Provenza, please see what information you can get from the owner, it's obvious, Ms. Ashley isn't going to be of any help for a while."

Sharon's phone rang for the third time in an hour, "Yes, we are taking care of Ashley… No we haven't identified the victim…. I will call you when we know more. She rolled her eyes as she pushed the end call button. Her aggravation was interrupted by Provenza and Amie's increasingly vocal conversation.

Amie held out her hand, "I want to make sure you are getting the facts right. That all of your i's are dotted and your t's are crossed." Provenza protested and shot Sharon a pleading glance.

"I assure you, Lt Provenza has been doing this job for a veeerrrry long time and he is quite thorough," Sharon said trying to calm the situation.

"No, seriously, hand over your notepad," Amie said as she snatched the paper from Provenza's fingers. "Hmm," she said, "not bad. I'm not sure how I feel about the oxford comma, but you need to be careful on your punctuation." She let out a deep sigh, "here is an example, let's eat grandma versus let's eat (comma) grandma." She pointed a finger at Provenza, "punctuation saves lives. You should know that by now, Lieutenant."

"I just need to know if you can identify the victim, I don't need a grammar lesson," Provenza grumbled as he yanked his notepad back.

"Hmmph, obviously you do, but no, I don't know this poor man's name," Amie shook her head, "he looks vaguely familiar. My business manager, Kate should be here shortly. She may know."

Sharon excused herself to answer yet another phone call, "I realize you are in Atlanta, but if you wouldn't call me every five minutes, I could do my job. That's right, MY job. If you continue to harass me about my competency, or the competency of the team I command, I am going to get in my car and drive to Atlanta tonight and explain it to you in such a way lightning bolts will burst forth from the sky, transformers will explode and the city will be dark except for the fire in my eyes… and this night, Brenda Leigh, just so you will know and your children will someday know is the night the lights went out in Georgia." She disconnected the call and looked up at her team, who stood frozen, staring at her. The room was dead silent, except for the gentle puffs of air coming from Ashley's mouth as she slept oblivious to the circus that had ensued around her.

"Hi y'alls," Kate called as she breezed into the scene of the crime. She jumped back, careful not to get her sandals or the hem of her tie-dyed dress into the wine. She peered over Kendall's shoulder as he examined the body. "Damn shame," she said shaking her head.

"Yes, murder is always a damn shame," Andy agreed.

Kate looked at him like he had lost his mind, "murder? Damn waste of good wine,"

"So you know our victim?" Andy asked, his brows raised.

"Ken Twidwell…I can't believe he just showed up dead. He's married to our night shift cleaning lady… Guess he dropped her off for work one night close to a year ago and never came back."

Andy rubbed his chin, "any idea where he went?"

She shrugged, "Rumor was he hooked up with one of the dancers at The Sultry Dolls."

Julio immediately looked up from what he was doing and asked, "Which one?" When everyone stopped to stare at him, his only response was, "What? That's a legitimate question."

"Okay, do you have the name of this dancer?" Andy asked.

Kate shrugged, "I guess whoever it was, she got tired of putting up with this worthless piece of crap and when he came crawling back, Karma's a bitch and she took him down."

"I've called Robbie Oderno. Mr. Twidwell was on the missing person's list," Sharon said. "He's on his way over now."

Kate pulled a bottle of wine off the shelf, poured a glass and lifted it high, "Karma, here's to you. You finally gave this scum what he deserved."

"It would be nice if we could chalk every murder up to karma, but it just doesn't work that way." Sharon explained, "Can you tell me the wife's name and where we might find her?"

Without looking up, Kate was too busy trying to calculate how much money was spilled on the floor. She turned to look at a frazzled Amie, "this will eat right into the profits."

Amie nodded in agreement, "The dead guy on the floor isn't going to help any either if this gets out to the public."

Kate looked over at Sharon to answer her question, "Are you sure you haven't been into the evidence over there?" With her glass she pointed to the spilled wine pooled on the floor around the body. "I've already told you… Karma…Karma did it." She took a step or two closer and was impressed with the beautiful abstract artwork the scene in front of her made. She tilted her head back and forth, "Ya know if ya with the right angle you can almost see an angel on a rainbow, crying blood tears into an ocean with a dolphin flipping out of the red water.

With an anxious laugh, Amie said, "leave it to Kate to find the beauty in death and spilled wine." With a frown she added, "Of course it had to be the red wine. Ms sleepy head here doesn't like white."

Turning to Amie, she handed her the glass of wine, "You look like you need this more than I do. Kate looked at the people around her, "ya'll know between the blood and the wine that stain will never come out." She tapped Ashley's foot with her sandal and received a moan and, 'yes Keith oh I know,' from sleeping beauty. "Guess she's having a good dream."

After the crime scene was properly documented by Buzz, Sharon announced, "all right let's head back to the office to finish the paperwork so we can get home." She offered Andy a knowing smile. She knew he wanted to get out of there as much as she did. "Detective Sanchez, would you kindly bring Ms. Ashley to your car and bring her back with us since she is covered in evidence."

Julio answered, "yes. Ma'am." He leaned down and lifted her into a fireman's carry.

When he picked her up Ashley groaned then asked with a moan, "Where's my wine?" She lifted her head off Julio's back enough to see her stained shirt. With a puff of breath, she blew the hair out of her eyes, on seeing her friends Ashley said, "oh I'm so sorry about the wine. I will buy a case to make it up to you." She barely got the last word out before Julio was out the door.

Their long night was almost over. The team was finishing up their paperwork and turning it into the captain. When Oderno was done, he turned to Amie and asked shyly, "I was wondering if I could treat you and your friends to breakfast then maybe get a tour of that impressive winery of yours?"

Ashley laughed and before Amie could answer she did for her, "oh she would love too."

Amie glared at her friend, "maybe I'm busy. I do have to figure out how to come back from having a body in the distillery?"

"Oh that can wait until later. Go have some breakfast with the very nice detective." Ashley walked over to Buzz. "Now, I don't want you to think I'm a light weight. I blame exhaustion from taking care of my family 24/7, jet lag and not having anything to eat."

Knowing her friends were about to dump her, Amie asked, "What, you two aren't coming with?"

Kate was in deep conversation with Lieutenant Tao. Neither were paying much attention to the happenings of the room, only focused on the technology in his hands as he was explaining how things worked. "Wow really?" Kate exclaimed, "Do that again. Ya'll should see this; Mike is showing this classic a thing or two. Did ya know that you can video in slow motion?"

Ashley laughed at her technology challenged friend and slid her arm around Buzz's elbow. Looking back at Amie she smiled and said, "As you can see Mike is going to help Kate learn how to use her phone and Buzz here has offered to show me around LA. So don't worry about us, go out to eat. You do have to eat. Have some fun, work will still be waiting for you when you get back." Passing the captain on the way out, Ashley stopped to say, "thank you for your hospitality and for the change of clothes." She touched her sleeve and smiled, "this green shirt feels like silk."

"That's because it is silk." When Ashley protested about her loaning her such a nice blouse. Sharon held a hand up and quickly said, "oh no keep it. After the night you had you earned it."

"Thank you again. I'll be sure to tell my sister Brenda how nice you all were to us."

Realizing what her relationship was to Chief Johnson was Sharon asked. "Sister?" She couldn't stop herself from saying, "but you seem…how can I say this?"

"Calmer?" Ashley finished for her. To clarify it she explained, "we aren't related, exactly. We are a close family, but when I say sister I mean sister-in-law. I am married to her brother."

Sharon was relieved that Ashley had helped her out. Most everyone in this room thought highly of Brenda including herself so she was grateful she wasn't the one to say it. "You're always welcome here anytime you are in LA. That goes for all three of you. Hope the rest of your vacation goes better than tonight." Sharon then went into her office to finish her paperwork so she could get Andy home. She shook her head, oh she meant so she could get home.

Amie walked over to hand her statement of what happened at her winery to Provenza. When she got to his desk, the lieutenant placed a hand over his papers. Amie just laughed as she placed her forms on his desk, "don't worry Lieutenant, I can see you've got this all under control. I trust your work and it looks like I have a date to get to." She turned to address the whole room. "Thank you all for what you've done tonight. It was nice meeting you." With that she nodded to Robby and they left to have breakfast.

Once everyone cleared out of the murder room and her paperwork was finalized, Sharon looked up at Andy. He was sitting in the chair in front of her desk. It wasn't easy trying to get work done while he watched, but in all honesty she was use to it by now. Standing up, she stretched and arched her back, more for his benefit than hers if the smile on his face was any indication. Sharon smiled back, picked up her purse and said, "I seem to recall you owe me a dinner, since you distracted me while I was cooking earlier and we didn't get time to eat before getting rolled out."

Andy laughed as he wrapped his hand around her waist pulling her into his side as they walked to the elevators. "Fine, blame me all you want, I'll happily pay the price and make you dinner, I just need to reheat what you already made."

"I don't think heating things up will be a problem at all." Sharon tugged on Andy's tie and pulled him in for a kiss as the elevator doors closed.

As it turned out, dinner was never eaten nor reheated even though they never quite made it out of the kitchen that night.


End file.
